A research team led by Dr. Jae-Woo Choi from the Water Resources Recycling Research Group and Dr. Jin Young Kim from the Center for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, President Sangrok Oh) has developed an eco-friendly palladium recovery technology based on titanium-based maxene material ('TiOx/Ti3C2Tx') nanosheets. Existing overseas technologies operated only in strongly acidic environments, limiting their applicability to weakly acidic wastewater commonly found in industrial settings.

Healthy aging induces parallel changes in brain functional activity and structural morphology, yet the interplay between these changes remains unclear. Prof. Yuhui Du’s team at the College of Computer and Information Technology, Shanxi University, in collaboration with Prof. Vince D. Calhoun (Georgia State University), analyzed multimodal neuroimaging data from 27,793 healthy subjects (aged 49-76 years) in the UK Biobank. They proposed a unified framework for single-modal and multimodal brain-age prediction and joint functional-structural aging analysis, systematically characterizing diverse synergistic vs. contradictory aging patterns between functional network connectivity (FNC) and gray matter volume (GMV). Importantly, these joint patterns were further linked to specific cognitive decline. The study, titled “Joint aging patterns in brain function and structure revealed using 27,793 samples” was published in Research (2025, 8:0887; DOI: 10.34133/research.0887).

Abstract

Purpose – The impact of digital transformation on banks’ systemic risk merits thorough investigation.

Design/methodology/approach – This study examines the influence of digital transformation on banks’ systemic risk based on the fixed effect model with quarterly unbalanced panel data on 36 listed commercial banks in China from 2011 to 2020.

Findings – Results show that digital transformation has a negative impact on banks’ systemic risk by reducing both bank-specific tail risk and systemic linkage to extreme market shocks. Heterogeneity analysis suggests that digital transformation can significantly reduce systemic risk in national commercial banks relative to regional commercial banks, mediated through lowered management costs. Finally, this study finds an asymmetric relationship between digital transformation and banks’ systemic risk. Particularly, a desirable level of digital transformation can reduce systemic risk, while excessive digital transformation may exacerbate it.

Originality/value – These findings provide valuable guidance for promoting digital transformation for banks and mitigating systemic risk from digitalization.

Thermoelectric technology that utilizes thermodynamic effects to convert thermal energy into electrical energy has greatly expanded wearable health monitoring, personalized detecting, and communicating applications. Encouragingly, thermoelectric technology assisted by artificial intelligence exerts great development potential in wearable electronic devices that rely on the self-sustainable operation of human body heat. Ionic thermoelectric (i-TE) devices that possess high Seebeck coefficients and a constant and stable electrical output are expected to achieve an effective conversation of thermal energy harvesting. Herein, we developed an i-TE paster for thermal chargeable energy storage, temperature-triggered material recognition, contact/non-contact temperature detection, and photo thermoelectric conversion applications. An all-solid-state organic ionic gel electrolyte (PVDF-HFP-PEO gel) with onion epidermal cells-like structure was sandwiched between two electrodes, which take full advantage of a synergy between the Soret effect and the polymer thermal expansion effect, thus achieving the enhanced ZT value up to 900% compared with the PEO-free electrolyte. The i-TE device delivers a Seebeck coefficient of 28 mV K⁻¹, a maximum energy conversion efficiency of 1.3% in performance, and ultra-thin and skin-attachable properties in wearability, which demonstrate the great potential and application prospect of the i-TE paster in self-sustainable wearable electronics.